to not insure my pets?

[Chevrotains]

Does anyone here just put away savings each month for their pets? I'm aware there is definitely a risk to this as well, but just tired of the amount going up each renewal.

@19lottie82 who are you with?

With respect, if you don't have the extra £20 a month would you have enough to cover a large unexpected bill? In an ideal world you'd have insurance and put a little away each month to cover when they're older or insurance refuses to pay out. My cat got knocked down a few years ago. Was left very badly injured but alive roadside until our neighbour noticed and got me. Had to bring her to the veterinary hospital in the middle of the night which cost £100 just to get over the door. Then had treatment, consultation fees and ultimately she had to be put down so all the additional costs for that. I couldn't have left her in that condition until normal working hours and having insurance meant I had the money back in my account a week later and I was given the option of giving her further treatment and tests or taking the vets advice that it would be kinder to let her go rather than being constrained by budget alone. So it depends on your finances.

@Lavender14 it's not that I don't have it. It's that it's increasing in just one year, they're all young animals... which seems a waste of money, when I could save it and use it if needed or have it, if I don't.

My cats are indoor cats too

I have three dogs (illness prone breed). My insurance bill for all 3 is over £100 per month. Two have never had claims (and one is 11) but the third is on £165 per month meds.

It's swings and roundabouts really. I'm rubbish at saving unless it's for something tangible so I suspect I'd spend the money - hence insurance works better for me. Big plans for no more dogs after these three but my DH will believe it when he sees it 🙈

My dog is insured, last year the cost was £50pm. My dog has an allergy injection once a month it costs just under £200, so already I'm quids in, then she needed tests, lumps removing and expensive treatment for e coli, that was over 4k. She also stood on glass and cut her paw, another £1500.

This year on renewal it went up to £54 per month despite knowing they would be paying for her allergy injections which are over £210pm this year.

I couldn't afford not to have insurance and without it, I'd have either had to return her to the rescue she came from or have her pts.

If you have a good amount of savings and can afford to cover expensive vet fees then insurance isn't particularly necessary, but I would always recommend getting the 3rd party liability cover by joining Dogs Trust.

We haven't, we got quotes when we got him 8 years ago and the cheapest was over £100 a month then (rescue, 9 years old with a selection of health issues) he's 17 in a couple of weeks and still going strong(ish) he's getting incontinent, but he's happy, he still bounces around like a puppy (even with a bad hip) dh and I have and will pay out for treatment, that's what savings and credit cards are for. However, as soon as his quality of life starts to fail, we'll have to have a serious conversation about his future.

There's no such thing as a pedigree Cockapoo. A cockapoo is a mongrel !

God yes, mine is insured and I was so glad as he was diagnosed with a few potentially serious conditions a few years ago. We've estimated that since then his vets bills have been in the region of £20,000 and most of it has been covered by insurance.

He's worth every penny though 😊

Cockapoo is a dog isn't it? very cute to look at.

Just a heads up to those that might rely on credit cards for vets bills, I reassured myself with a credit card, I kept a zero balance on it and its only purpose would be to be used in an emergency for vets bills, last year when I needed it, my vets refused to take it, something to do with the charges from visa wiping out any money they would have made. Check with your vets that they would accept them before relying on them.

Insurance isn't just for covering illness or vets fees. It includes liability in case of accidents, eg your dog causes a car accident by running out in the road/dog bites another dog etc.

Even if you don't take the full insurance you should always makes sure you have 3rd party liability insurance as otherwise it could be very costly.

Don't forget pet insurance covers more than just vet bills.

If you have to cut short your holiday because your pet is seriously unwell, it can cover the cost of your return flight home, or the whole holiday if cancelled in the days before you're due to go away (most travel insurance won't cover these costs for a pet).

If you end up hospitalised unexpectedly and have no one to care for your animals, pet insurance can help cover the cost of kennel/cattery fees.

If your dog damages another person's property or if they hurt another animal or person it can help towards the public liability costs where you are legally responsible. This is often advertised as £1million cover.

If your pet is lost or stolen, it can help towards advertising and reward fees.

I've only ever been with petplan and have lifetime cover and complementary therapy cover. Because they are so good, our vets are happy to claim directly from them and we just now pay a little bit of excess now he's over 10y. My dog is the absolute centre of my family's universe and even with all his health conditions, is still plodding along. He's my hero.

I have 2 Maine coons (both indoor cats), 8 months old & both insured. My girl hasn't had any costs yet but my boy I've had to claim over £1000 worth so far, a hernia op, 2 stool samples @ £170 & 390 and treatment. If I hadn't insured them I'd of only saved a tiny amount of that so far. Will always keep them insured now!

Well, I have a dog who - after the age of ten - developed cancer. Twice.
Treatment wasn't burdensome and restored a happy, healthy dog to us.
Cost maybe £10k though.

Insurance is expensive, but having insurance rather than an all too tempting savings pot has 2 advantages.
Obviously, if the pet gets expensively sick early on, their vet fees still get paid.
And secondly, when you are worried sick about your dearly loved pet, you can just concern yourself with doing what's best for them, and not be going, "god that's expensive, do we really want to do that" and feeling horrible.

My dog is insured as very young and it's good cover for very little money, however, I am also putting money away for the future when I will self insure as my last Ddog was insured all his life and I did make a couple of claims but majority of his treatment wither fell below the excess or wasn't covered in the end. When the last insurer put his premium up to 4 times the previous years premium when he had his 10th birthday I was pretty disgusted as we hadn't made any claims at all for a few years, unfortunately Ddog took very ill 2 weeks before his insurance was due for renewal and despite good cover the vet advised there was nothing that could be done for him, other than a couple treatments that were unpleasant and probably wouldn't work so I took the decision to have him put to sleep.

I can't believe the amount of posters here leaving themselves wide open to financial ruin , not having third party for dogs .

My dog is 14. We’re fortunate he’s always been well so we’ve never claimed on his pet insurance. As a young pup the premiums were ok but it increases every year as he gets older. We’re now paying £111 a month insurance premium. There’s no point in shopping around now so I’m sucking it up, grudgingly. Recently he’s been struggling with his mobility and he’s been to the vets a few times Each visit is a £50 consultation fee plus medication anther £50. The excess is now £100 plus 20% of the treatment so these visits don’t meet the threshold to claim. The vet has mentioned he might need an MRI which would cost around £3k, our excess would still be £700 or so on that but that would literally be the only thing we’ve ever claimed. It’s not been good value.

if I had another dog I’d put away £100 a month for any vets fees and wouldn’t insure. It is a risk of course, a friend’s dog needed emergency treatment and a referral to a specialist vets aged three which would’ve been thousands without insurance but I resent now that I’m being stung for my insurance premium and I’d still be left with a big bill if he needed treatment.

Good question OP. I winced at the £500 premium when we got our doodle last year. One emergency vet visit (when he found marijuana in the park and ate it) later, it had paid for itself. I think where we live this is a fairly common problem! So that plus any other issue eg he eats something dodgy from the garden or damages a joint trying to jump over something, and it's worth it to me.

We didn't but then our 8yr old dog needed £10k surgery. She was too young to pts. She has recovered well and has a happy life at 10. We have insurance now and past the two year exclusion for pre-existing conditions.

My cat chipped the top of her femur a couple of years ago and needed surgery, the vet bill came to £4k. Thankfully she was, and still is, insured.

I have three young cats and donhsve insurance.
Previously I had two utterly adored cats, also without insurance, that lived to be nearly 17 and 19 and a half.
While they were relatively young it was just teeth ops and boosters that I was paying for, with a once in a blue moon consultation and treatment for something mild.
They did cost more from about 13 years onwards....one had hyperthyroidism, the other had stomatitis and suspected oral cancer.
But I still think I would have paid more if tgey had been insured.

It’s your risk to take. Two of my dogs have never needed insurance, the other maxed out the limit and we had to top up for his treatment. He would have been put to sleep without his insurance, I would have to be in dire straits to ever cancel.

One of our dogs managed to rupture both cruciate ligaments, needing two lots of orthopaedic surgery, and a further one when she dislocated her kneecap within a couple of months, then developed a gastric ulcer from the pain relief.

All in all Petplan paid out just over £10,000 - and she had several more happy healthy years, so worth every penny.

Pet insurance is a gamble, @Chevrotains - we definitely won, but plenty of people don’t so I guess it’s up to how risk averse you are.